A Little About Canaries
We’ve had several special canaries, over a couple of decades now, and we
adore their company. We have had up to three together, but they do tend to
argue and boss each other around, unless they are a mated pair (canaries mate
and pair up for life). Thus, if you buy a mated pair, or if you’re lucky
enough to adopt a male and a female, they really might bond to one another.
Otherwise, two canaries of the same sex, even two females, tend to seek to
establish a 'pecking order' and maintain it by bossing one another around -
so we believe that it’s better to get a single canary. They are very social
birds, and because they are so social, both to other birds and to their
bonded humans, the single canary will then bond to YOU a lot more, also.

They’re also birds which are best kept indoors with you, as they’re a lot
more fragile, health wise, and panic wise than, for example, budgerigars.
Canaries can literally die from a fright, moreso than any other birds, so
you need to be sensitive to establish and maintain their everyday habits
and familiar surroundings and feelings of safety and security. Also, if you
keep your canary indoors, they will bond to you a lot more with seeing you
constantly.

Male whistler canaries’ songs are very melodic - though some people tire
of male canaries’ constant singing! The males are particularly known
for their song … they are indeed very beautiful singers. If you desire
one of these male singers, a good tip - the gene for the singing-ability
is connected to the gene for red/orange feather colour - so the best male
singers are usually also bright orange/red.

If you want a canary that will not sing as loudly, or as continuously,
some of the yellow ones do not sing much at all, especially the females …
though they twitter and speak to you, which is really nice. Another tip -
do not believe that a pet shop is really certain as to whether canaries are
male or female - with the exception of the red male singers - unless they
insist it is a female because it has laid an egg! It is notoriously hard to
judge the sex of a canary by inspecting below it’s tail, and we have many
times had more than one canary, who we thought were males, decisively
falsify our presumption by laying an egg!

Canaries are definitely best as indoor pets, with humans who are
understanding of canaries’ sensitivities … our precious canary now, Squeaky,
is so bonded to us, that she twitters at us when we’re in the same room as
her and, when we feed her, she gazes into our eyes and twitters at us with
affection.

And are these gorgeous or what? These beautiful digi-scraps were created for us by our very good friend,
Gavotte - encore, merci beaucoup, Gavotte, j'adore tes super cadeaus, et ta
belle amitie! You can see more of Gavotte's creations on her website too, at
http://tygavotte.fr.